Surviving Babel - a review by Ruth Paget

Surviving Babel – a review by Ruth Paget 

Babel by R.F. Kuang is a highly readable story about how racism in 19th century Great Britain affected its foreign policy. 

Kuang’s anti-hero is Robin Swift, an Anglo-Chinese student at the Royal Institute of Translation, called Babel, at Oxford University. Kuang’s novel is set in 1830s England where silver makes the British Empire run. Babel’s translations create magical silver that fund the student stipends and contribute to the British Empire’s wealth. 

The British Empire’s problem in Babel is that the silver is running out due to buying luxury goods from India and China. These two countries want nothing that England produces making the Indians and Chinese accumulate vast reserves of silvers as the British silver funds are being depleted. 

This situation creates the need for certain languages to be taught at Babel and the economic argument to promote the Opium Drug Wars between England and China. 

Robin Swift and his classmates learned languages to fill needs of the British Empire with no other perceived alternatives offered for employment. This negative learning environment brings in Babel’s crime element, which is threaded throughout Robin Swift’s student years and “career.” 

Learning about the traditions and lifestyle at Babel and Oxford University keeps Kuang’s novel from being a pessimistic reading experience. I liked learning about the insider names of the various academic quarters at Oxford and about the third and fourth year qualifying exams, the internships, the immersive language experiences, and profitable languages for translation. 

That students could work during the social upheaval of 19th century Great Britain illustrates the strength of Oxford University as an institution that it still benefits from today as the training ground for the United Kingdom’s leaders.

Readers who might enjoy Babel by R.F. Kuang include: 

-diplomats

-translators 

-economists 

-students applying for fellowships to study at Oxford 

-travelers 

I enjoyed Babel by R.F. Kuang because I was an undergraduate student in East Asian Studies. This novel is definitely a book I would have discussed with my classmates over coffee and pastries at the University of Chicago in the Regenstein Library’s coffee shop. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta Fazool) Soup at Olive Garden in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Italian Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta Fazool) Soup at Olive Garden in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Pasta e fagioli soup is stand-by dish at the Olive Garden in Salinas, California that is not too expensive and full of protein. Pasta e fagioli is similar to the chili mac that I made as a teenager in very cold Detroit (Michigan) with the difference that chili is made with all red kidney beans and flavored with smoky cayenne red pepper. I credit chili mac with being to withstand subzero walks to school in Detroit. 

Pasta e fagioli is soup with a thinner liquid base than a chili, but is loaded with lots of nutritious ingredients. 

I consulted a recipe for one similar to Olive Garden’s at wellplated.com that calls for: 

-olive oil

-ground beef

-salt

-carrots 

-onions 

-garlic 

-chicken broth 

-crushed, canned tomatoes 

-red kidney beans 

-cannellini beans 

-seasonings – bay leaf, Italian seasoning, black pepper, and red pepper flakes 

To make the soup like the one at Olive Garden, you brown the ground beef till it is no longer pink. You add chopped carrots, onion, and garlic and cook them till soft. Olive Garden might also use chopped fennel stalks for a slight licorice or anise flavor in their soup. 

Once the vegetables are sot, you add the crushed tomatoes, canned red kidney beans, canned cannellini beans, and pasta such as elbow macaroni. 

The seasoning in pasta e fagioli is savory not spicy hot, which I like. 

The pasta e fagioli at Olive Garden is tasty as we would say in the Midwestern US. My daughter Florence Paget and I ordered ½ gallon of the soup that cost $19.79. We also ordered mozzarella sticks (8 for $9.99) and garlic bread sticks (12 for $7.49). Grated Parmesan cheese came with this meal for the soup. 

For a weekend lunch, I think these prices are reasonable for the taste and nutrition content of the food we ate. 

Busy parents might especially like pasta e fagioli soup, mozzarella sticks, and garlic bread at Olive Garden in Salinas, California (on North Main Street). 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Spicy Alaskan Flounder (Sole) Sandwich at Popeye's in Gilroy (South of San José), California by Ruth Paget

Spicy Alaskan Flounder (Sole) Sandwich at Popeye’s in Gilroy (South of San Jose), California by Ruth Paget 

Salinas dwellers like I am can take a quick 30-minute drive to Gilroy, California (south of San José on 101) for seasonal spicy Alaskan flounder sandwiches at Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen. 

Popeye’s is famous for its generous portions in their fried chicken sandwich combos and their fried shrimp combos, but when Alaska flounder is in season, I always order their large spicy flounder combination meal. 

The large flounder filet is deep-fried and served on a brioche bun with spicy mayonnaise, thick pickles, and lettuce. The large combination comes with two side dishes. I always order the red beans and rice and thick and creamy coleslaw made with chopped cabbage, onions, and carrots in cream dressing. The beans and rice and flounder sandwich are spicy and get toned down by the coleslaw. 

Popeye’s offers lemonade among its beverage choices. The lemonade is tart, which l like a lot. I imagine the tart flavor comes from the Vitamin C in lemon juice. 

Popeye’s headquarters is in Miami, Florida, but the restaurant’s theme is Cajun food from Southern Louisiana. Cajun food is eaten throughout the southeastern US and is now spreading to California. 

After eating a delicious spicy flounder sandwich meal, you can stop in and buy books at Barnes and Noble, which is in the same shopping center. My daughter Florence Paget ran in on our last trip to buy The Poppy War series by R.F. Kuang for her mom, who was an East Asian Studies major in college. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Great Deal on British Food Book Today on Kindle by Ruth Paget

Mary Berry’s Complete Cookbook of British food is $1.99 today on Kindle.  It has 650 recipes and is 2,372 pages long.  This is a deal, if you like British food.

I own this book and reconnect with my British heritage as I read through the recipes.  Other readers might enjoy it for this reason as well.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

University of Chicago Press Book Sale and Odyssey New Release by Ruth Paget

The University of Chicago Press has a book sale now through June 15, 2025 and a new release of the Odyssey translation out by Daniel Mendelsohn.

University of Chicago Press Sale Information

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Thank you Mercado Libre in Argentina for carrying my book by Ruth Paget

Thank you Mercado Libre in Argentina for carrying my book Eating Soup with Chopsticks!

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Visiting Mozart's Childhood Home in Salzburg, Austria by Ruth Paget

Visiting Mozart’s Childhood Home in Salzburg, Austria by Ruth Paget 

When my husband Laurent and I lived in Stuttgart (Germany), our daughter Florence Paget came to visit us when she was on a semester break from Juilliard for three weeks. 

She was studying playwriting, but I thought she really should visit the Mozart House in Salzburg, Austria for school spirit. (Stage mom Ruth was the one who secretly wanted to visit Austria again.) So, we set out for Austria in our car and enjoyed driving through Bavaria east to Salzburg. 

Salzburg, which means salt city, is close to the German border. Once we arrived in the Altstadt, old city, where Mozart’s home is located, we went out for a walk. This area has soaring Baroque architecture, which may have inspired Mozart on carriage rides or walks around town as a child. 

Mozart’s home is not elaborate which reminds you that music requires a lot of practice to master the basics before you delve into creativity. Mozart was a child prodigy, who no doubt practiced a lot, but he must have been motivated to achieve what he did at such an early age. 

I like to think that he was motivated by positive rewards such as performing in beautiful clothes for the emperor and aristocrats on big occasions, but for the everyday motivations I think the pastries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire might have been ample rewards for getting practice done. 

The big three desserts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire might have encouraged Mozart’s creativity I think – Sachertortes, Dobostortes, and Linzertortes. I used the Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague cookbook by Rick Rodgers (496 pages - $2.99 today on Kindle)  to look up what is in these pretty pastries in the window:

-Sachertorte – This pastry is the culinary symbol of Vienna, Austria. It is a chocolate glazed cake with horizontally split layers with apricot preserves placed between the layers. 

-Dobostorte – This pastry is a Hungarian dish from Budapest. It is made of five thin layers of chocolate cake layers with chocolate buttercream filling and topped off with caramel. 

-Linzertorte – This is a pastry from Linz, Austria. It is a fruit preserves pastry like a Danish with a lattice crust. 

Positive feedback in the form of pastries might well have been the daily motivation for practice for young Mozart. 

All this is speculation, of course, to discuss while enjoying a pastry and coffee with whipped cream during a typical Austrian jause, coffee break, in Salzburg, Austria. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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